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THE COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND 

ADMINISTRATION OF SCHOOLS 

IN ALABAMA 



AN ACT APPROVED AUGUST 16, 1915 



A COMPARISON OF THE OLD LAW AND 

THE NEW, WITH AN EXPOSITION 

OF THE LATTER. 



WM. F. FEAGIN, 

Superintendent of Education, 

Montgromory, Alabama. 



BROWN PRINTINQ CO. MONTQOMENY. 






D. Of D. 
wT 8 IS » 



ALABAMA 
COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION 



OLD LAW 



PERSONNEL 



NEW LAW 



Five members, four elected by 
the chairmen of the district trus- 
tees, the county superintendent 
being the fifth man. 



Five members elected from this 
county-at-large by the legal vot- 
ters, both men and women being 
eligible. 



QUALIFICATIONS 



Qualified elector of the county. 



M 



Good moral character, at least 
a fair elementary education, good 
reputation for honesty, business 
ability, public spiritedness and 
interest in the good of public ed- 
ucation. 



TERM OF OFFICE 



Four years, the terms of all 
members being contemporaneous. 



Six years, one or two members 
retiring at the end of each two- 
year period. 



GENERAL DUTIES 



To have entire control of the 
public schools within their re- 
spective counties, unless other- 
wise provided by law; to make 
rules and regulations for the gov- 
ernment of the schools; to ac- 
quire, purchase, lease, receive, 
hold and convey the title to real 
and personal property for school 
purposes except where otherwise 
provided; to sue and contract. 



To have entire control of the 
public schools within their re- 
spective counties, , unless other- 
wise provided by law; to make 
rules and regulations for the gov- 
ernment of the schools; to ac- 
quire, purchase, by the institution 
of condemnation proceedings if 
necessary, lease, receive, hold and 
convey the title to real and per- 
sonal property for school pur- 
poses except where otherwise pro- 
vided by law; to sue and contract. 



SPECIFIC DUTIES 



(a). To place the county super- 
intendent of education upon a sal- 
ary basis, requiring him to give 
full time to the supervision of the 
schools.* 

(b). To elect a county treasurer 
of public school funds. 

(c). (No corresponding power.) 



(a). To elect a county superin- 
tendent of education, prescribe 
his duties and fix his salary. 



(d). To select teachers upon 
nomination by district trustees 
and to employ assistant superin- 
tendents and fix their salaries. 



(b). To elect a county treasurer 
of public school funds. 

(c). To elect a successor of any 
member whose place becomes va- 
cant by death, resignation or oth- 
erwise, until the next regular 
election. 

(d). To select upon nomination 
of the county superintendent of 
education, teachers, assistant su- 
perintendents, supervisors and of- 
fice assistants and fix their sala- 
ries, 
(e). To erect, repair and fur- (e). To erect, repair and fur- 

nish schoolhouses, fix wages of nish schoolhouses, fix wages of 
employees and have control of the employees, determine the inciden- 
public school funds of the county tal fees and have entire control of 
except as otherwise provided by the public school funds of the 
law. county except as otherwise pro- 

vided by law. 
(f). Upon proper application, (f). To fix the boundaries of 

publication and notice, to rear- school districts and locate schools 
range the boundaries of any with reference to convenience, ef- 
school district. ficiency and economy. 

(g). (No authority to transport (g). To consolidate schools and 

pupils at public expense). provide for the transportation of 

pupils at public expense. 

(h) (h). To appoint from one to 

three trustees for each school, 
(i) „ (i). To enforce compulsory at- 

tendance as required by law. 
(j) (j). To dismiss the county su- 

perintendent or any other em- 
ployee for cause or when in the 
opinion of the board the best in- 
terests of the schools require it. 

(k) (k). To provide for taking the 

school census. 

*It should be remembered that the county superintendent was one of the five mem* 
bers of the board and therefore had a right to assist in fixing his own salary. 



REMUNERATION 



Two dollars a day for each 
day's work, for not more than ten 
days in any one year. 



Actual traveling and hotel ex- 
penses incurred in attending 
meetings of the board for not 
more than twelve meetings in any 
one year. 



SALARIES OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS 



Four percentum of funds dis- 
bursed not to exceed $1,800 from 
State funds per annum, or salary 
of not less than $1,000 a year. 



Salary of not less than $1,000 
a year. 



THE ALABAMA LAW FOR THE COUNTY ORGANIZA- 

TION AND ADMINISTRATION OF 

SCHOOLS 



Character of No man has any right to advocate a change 
the Measure. in the method of administering our public 

schools unless he can be sure that the inno- 
vations proposed are for the increased benefit of those con- 
cerned by such changes, and the responsibility for cham- 
pioning a measure that entirely recasts the method of ad- 
ministering our public schools is one that any citizen should 
seriously and deliberately weigh. 

The syllabus preceding this article sets out 
Membership. the chief differences between the old law 

and the new. As for the personnnel of the 
board under the new law, there will be five members elected 
from the county at large by the qualified electors of the 
county, for terms of six years, one-third of the terms expir- 
ing every two years, the members to serve without pay 
other than expenses. 

p , , The policies of the board under this plan 

p ^ will of necessity be continuous, a practical 

owers. impossibility under our former plan, when 

all members were elected and their terms of office expired 
at the same time. The new board will also be free from the 
domination of the county superintendent, who heretofore 
has been a member of the board and had the power to assist 
in fixing his own salary. The law probably did not intend 
this to be so, but it was in practice a fact. The new board, 
elected by the people of the county from the county at large, 



will be the people's board, and it will have the general over- 
sight and direction of all educational agencies in the county, 
including the county superintendent. 

Section 2 of the law provides that the 
County at members of the county board of education 

Large vs. shall be elected from the county at large. 

Commission- There are those who would advocate the 
ers' District. plan of selecting members from commis- 
sioners' districts, but in answer to such it 
may be said: 

1. That electing the members from the county at large 
will make possible a board composed of men of the highest 
attainments, inasmuch as the whole county can be drawn 
from. There should certainly be no limitation upon the 
right to secure the best men in the county, no matter from 
what district they come. 

2. That the election of board members from the county 
at large will tend to eliminate selfish interests, which their 
election from commissioners' districts would tend to develop. 
This is evidenced in the case of our present county commis- 
sioners, who, as a rule, represent the districts from which 
they come rather than the county at large, thereby making 
the good of the community a primary consideration and the 
good of the county a secondary one. 

3. That the members of the county board of education 
should have free and unbiased control of the entire educa- 
tional system of the county, and this cannot be so without a 
lofty type of men clothed with the widest responsibility and 
authority for the organization and management of the sys- 
tem as a whole. 

4. That it is certain no higher type of board members 
could be secured by electing them from different districts, 
even though they were elected by the voters of the county as 



a whole, than by electing them from the county at large, and 
there is strong probability that a somewhat lower type 
might be chosen. 

5. That inasmuch as the bill provides for the appoint- 
ment of a county superintendent of education by the county 
board, said superintendent should be elected without refer- 
ence to the section of the county or country from which he 
comps, without any limitation upon his authority and re- 
sponsibility for the supervision of the schools of the entire 
county and without regard to the local interests of any mem- 
ber of the board. 

6. That under the former law there were three sources 
of accountability resulting often in conflicting interests : The 
district trustees to the people of the small territory that 
elected them ; the county board of education to the chairmen 
of the district trustees who elected them ; and the county 
superinendent of education to the people of the county as a 
whole who elected him. Under the new law there will be but 
one source of accountability, in the last analysis, namely, 
that of the county board of education to the people of the 
whole county who elected them, the county superintendent 
of education and the district trustees being directly respon- 
sible to the county board of education. 

7. That experience wherever the plan has been employed 
shows that the unit of organization and the unit of admin- 
istration of public schools should be one and the same for 
the best results. 

8. That the plan of choosing the members of the board 
of education from the county at large has the unqualified ap- 
proval and endorsement of the United States Bureau of Edu- 
cation, of the Southern Educational Association, and of the 
Conference for Education in the South, — the courts of final 
jurisdiction, as it were, of educational policy in the Southern 

States. 

9 



The principal additional powers conferred 
Additional upon the county boards of education under 

Powers. the new law include the power to select and 

appoint the county superintendent of edu- 
cation and to rearrange school districts so that schools may 
be located with reference to convenience, efficiency, and 
economy, and pupils transported, when necessary, so that 
consolidated schools may be established wherever it is de- 
sirable that such schools shall replace the expensive and in- 
efficient one-teacher schools now so prevalent. 

The most strategic official, as well as the 
Importance of most important, in our whole public school 
Office of system, is the county superintendent of ed- 

County Super- ucation, and he should bear at least a part 
intendent. of the responsibility for the inefficiency of 

our public schools which we have been too 
prone to place entirely at the door of the teacher, — though 
she is not blameless, inasmuch as we have something like 
1,500 beginning teachers in Alabama every year, approxi- 
mately 1,200 of whom have had no experience whatever 
other than that gained in teachers' institutes. 

Of the 305,248 white children enrolled in 
Disadvantages the elementary public schools of the State, 
of Country 233,152, or 76%, reside in rural districts. 

Teachers. All will agree that the rural school prob- 

lem demands at least equal consideration 
with the city school problem, and yet, that is where we have 
the most inexperienced teachers, the least supervision, the 
poorest buildings and equipment, the most irregular attend- 
ance, and oftentimes the most meager support. It has been 
definitely ascertained that there is an average of one expert 
supervisor in cur eighteen largest cities for every nineteen 
teachers engaged in the service, — this, too, where there is 
only one grade to be taught by a teacher who is herself sup- 

10 



posed to be an expert. In most counties in Alabama, how- 
ever, we have at least seventy-five or one hundred teachers 
to the supervising ofliicer. If the town where every teacher 
under supervision can be seen in one day requires one super- 
visor for every nineteen teachers, is it fair for the country 
teacher who is poorly prepared both as to training and 
equipment, to have only one visit a year from the county 
superintendent ? The town teacher is surrounded by a group 
of trained teachers with whom she may advise at any mo- 
ment ; the rural teacher must stand alone. 

The criticism is just, therefore, which 
Where the holds that our teachers are lacking in 

Responsibility ideals both as to what a rural school should 
Lies. accomplish and how it should be adminis- 

tered to meet the needs of the community ; 
but teachers should not bear all of the responsibility for a 
blameworthiness that, so far as they are concerned, is more 
apparent than real. Some of the censure should be placed 
upon such of our county superintendents of education as 
have failed to furnish the intelligent leadership and direc- 
tion needed. 

An examination of the reports submitted 
What the to the Department of Education monthly 

Records Show, by the county superintendents of education 
and covering a period of two years, dis- 
closes the fact that the so-called supervision of schools by 
county superintendents is inadequate: 

1. The large number of school districts in any county 
makes it impossible for the county superintendent to spend 
much time in the school if he wishes to get around as much 
as twice during the year. 

2. In a majority of the counties of the State, more than 
one visit to the same school in any year is infrequent, while 
in a considerable number of counties the average would be 

11 



about three visits to the same school within a period of five 
years. 

3. The terms of our rural schools for whites vary from 
seventy-three days in Marion county to one hundred sixty- 
nine days in Mobile county. In the former there are eighty- 
four white schools with ninety-eight teachers, so that if the 
superintendent is to visit each school once during the year, 
he must remain less than one day of six hours at each school. 
It is therefore impossible for the superintendent to do more 
than make a few general observations and give a few direc- 
tions. He has little, if any, opportunity to know whether his 
advice has been followed until his next yearly visit, when he 
will probably find a new teacher on the ground, inasmuch as 
the average term of service of the rural school teacher in his 
county is but little more than one year. 

This striking fact should be remarked: 
Mobile County. That the longest school term and the long- 
est term of service on the part of the 
teacher is in Mobile county where the schools have for a 
long time been under substantially the same plan of admin- 
istration and supervision that this new law now gives to the 
other counties. It should also be noted that the county su- 
perintendent of education has been in office for fifteen years. 
This is in itself a concrete illustration right here in Alabama 
of what we may expect from the operation of the new law. 

An examination of the Annual Report of 
Visits of the Department shows that the number of 

County Super- schools in any county is, as a rule, more 
intendent. than the number of days in the school year 

in such county, so that the superintendent 
would be unable himself to make more than one visit of one 
day to each school. In actual practice, however, the number 
of visits of the county superintendent annually falls far be- 
low the number of schools in many instances. This will ap- 

12 



pear from the 1915 Report which credits two county super- 
intendents with no visits whatsoever, one with one visit, two 
with eight, and others with twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, 
tweny-three, twenty-four, thirty-five and forty-one visits, 
respectively. There is but one way to estimate just what 
effect the new law will have upon the county superinten- 
dent's performance of his duty in this particular instance, 
and this will appear from the following statistics : 

SCHOOLS TAUGHT IN RURAL DISTRICTS 

Year White Colored Total 

1910-11 4,331 1,855 6,186 

1913-14 4,365 1,852 6,217 

NUMBER OF VISITS BY COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT 

1910-11 3,121 397 3,518 

1913-14 6,528 1,329 7,857 

The Increase It will be readily seen that the number of 
Explained. schools during this period has remained 

practically stationary while the number of 
visits has more than doubled. The explanation is simple: 
In the former scholastic year, the county superintendents 
were upon a percentage basis and exercised their own op- 
tion about visiting schools. The salaries were not such, as a 
rule, to relieve them of the necessity of engaging in other 
work. In the latter scholastic year, many of them had been 
put upon a salary basis giving them an assured livelihood 
and enabling them to give their full time to the work. The 
convincing thing about it is the fact that practically all the 
net increase in^he number of visits has come about in those 
counties where the county superintendents have been trans- 
ferred to the salary basis, the number of visits by county su- 

13 



perintendents who are still oh the percentage basis remain- 
ing almost constant. 

Under the more favorable conditions, how- 
In Extenu- ever, no county superintendent could give 

ation. the amount of supervision necessary in any 

county, nor could he be expected to visit 
every day during which the schools are in. session, and for 
the following reasons : 

1. The condition of the weather and of the roads often 
prohibits it. 

2. He has office and other routine duties to be per- 
formed. 

3. Visits made at the close of the session are rarely of 
any worth, so far as constructive efforts are concerned. 

Perhaps the most serious defect, so far as 
Lack of the elective county superintendent is con- 

Accountability, cerned, is his lack of accountability to any 
particular authority. His responsibility to 
the State Superintendent is negligible and his responsibility 
to those who elected him is not easy to determine under the 
present status of politics. He must of necessity keep his 
eyes and ears, politically speaking, open to his future aspira- 
tions perhaps more than to the needs and opportunities of 
the schools and the children. 

The fact that he must, if he wishes to be 
Politician vs. re-elected, undertake to win the favor of 
Supervisor. those whom he should condemn, undoubt- 

edly tends to prevent him, no matter how 
extraordinary and inflexible his character, from doing his 
full duty ; and where there is no especial principle at stake, 
he naturally measures the probable effect that any act or 
position will have upon his future political career. It is 
equally as patent that the greater the need to stimulate and 
improve, the more dangerous it will be for him to do his 

14 



duty, if he wishes to be re-elected. The fact that twenty-nine 
out of the sixty-seven county superintendents were defeated 
at the last election shows clearly that the element of risk 
precludes any high degree of efficiency. It is not to be won- 
dered, therefore, that the expense involved in running for 
office, the humiliation of defeat, the short tenure, and the 
necessity of rurrxing again at the end of four years, have not 
made for efficiency in the administration or in the super- 
vision of our schools. 

Nor is it fair to fix the blame upon the 
The System. county superintendent for this state of af- 
fairs. It has come about as the inevitable 
result of the system, and that is where the new law will give 
much needed relief. It will take the office out of politics 
and place it upon the same high plane that it now is in ap- 
proximately 8,000 cities of the United States. The city su- 
perintendency is regarded as a profession. Able men are 
attracted to it and devote their lives to the work. 

The principal objection that has been 
Is the New raised to the appointive county superinten- 

Law Undemo- dent of education is the stock one that the 
cratic? plan is undemocratic. The cities are not 

undemocratic because they appoint their 
city superintendents. The counties are not undemocratic 
because they appoint the county health officer or the county 
surveyor, and it should be the rule wherever skill of a special 
type is required. The qualifications demanded for the office 
of county superintendent are such that the people, under the 
spell of politics, are not competent to decide between candi- 
dates, and in the interests of the education of their children 
they should not be required to do so ; nor is the opposition of 
the people to the present plan so often the reality it is pic- 
tured to be. Most frequently it is a subterfuge put forward 
by our poorer county superintendents, who see in this meas- 

15 



ure the end of their connection with the public schools of 
the county. To be perfectly frank about the matter, it can- 
not be said that the people are prepared to have any very 
positive opinion in the matter, for the reason that they know 
nothing of any other plan ; and it is equally true that they 
would readily change their viewpoint if a different system 
worked more satisfactorily. What could be more foolish in 
an agricultural State like Alabama than to go on giving our 
city children a good school, well supervised for nine months, 
while the country children have a poor school for five or six 
months, and with practically no supervision. So long as the 
State forces the rural boy to starve educationally while his 
city cousin fattens, so to speak, we must be content with 
poor methods of farming, small crops, a poor country-folk, a 
continued migration from the country to the city, and an in- 
creasing farm tenancy. Never before in the history of our 
educational system has there been such a need for men of 
superior skill to pilot our schools, and this is perhaps the 
chief element of strength in the new law. 

This law also confers upon the county 
Appointive board the authority to appoint practically 

Power of the all educational officers in the county, and it 
Board. may, therefore, remove any employee, 

when, in the opinion of the board, the best 
interests of the schools require such action. The county su- 
perintendent is the executive officer of the board and his 
principal duties are supervisory, clerical assistance being 
provided to relieve him of most of the detail work. He can, 
therefore, give his entire time and attention to the improve- 
ment of the school system, especially the teachers in service. 
The fact that he has the right to nominate teachers will se- 
cure, first of all, a uniformly good teaching force, and the 
members of such force will feel in honor bound to carry out 
his policies. The board will have the authority to remove 

16 



or transfer a teacher from one school to another, when, in 
the judgment of the board, such change is necessary for the 
good of the school, — a plan followed very successfully in 
cities at the present time. 

Another contention urged most strongly 
District against the new law is that the power 

Trustees. given to the county board is undemocratic 

because it takes away from the people the 
right to elect their district trustees and places this power in 
the hands of the county board of education. This might be 
true, were it not for the fact that under the new law the sys- 
tem is readily responsive to the will of the people. The 
county board of education is elected directly by the people. 
The counties are not so large but that the public can know 
personally and keep close watch over the administration of 
their schools ; the counties are not so large but that the peo- 
ple may know personally any person seeking a place on the 
county board of education ; and the counties are not so large 
but that any one with a complaint or a suggestion may at- 
tend the meetings of the board. 

Under the old law, the people of the dis- 
Consolidation trict who were freeholders and household- 
Impossible, ers, were supposed to meet and elect three 

trustees for each district. Under the new 
law, the county board of education will appoint not more 
than three persons as trustees for each school to care 
for the property of the school, to look after its general 
interests, and to make to the county board of education re- 
ports of the progress and needs of the school, and of the will 
and sentiment of the people, women being eligible for ap- 
pointment. The old plan was unsatisfactory in that, as a 
rule, a small per cent of the freeholders and householders in 
the district took part in the election of district trustees. 
They either knew nothing about it or did not care. There are 

17 



numbers of instances where only three persons were presnt 
at the place for election, and they voted themselves into 
office. Inasmuch as the chairman of the district trustees so 
elected chose the county board members, the first responsi- 
bility of said members was to the chairmen of the district 
trustees, making it impossible in practice to consolidate 
school districts, because of the unwillingness of trustees to 
relinquish their offices. There is no other explanation of the 
fact that Alabama is today behind the majority of other 
states in the consolidation of schools. Florida, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, and Tennessee count their consolidated schools 
by the hundreds. 

Again, the trustees under the old law were 
Community constantly divided because each of the 

Divided. three usually had some relative whom he 

desired to teach the school. The trustees 
disagreed among themselves, therefore, and this resulted in 
a division of the community and the injury of the school, 
and for the further reason that no trustee could be removed 
except through impeachment proceedings. The provisions 
of the new law, whereby the county board of education, 
elected from the county at large, would be charged with the 
responsibility of conducting the schools of the county, and 
in the several districts, and would have the power to appoint 
a trustee or trustees for any school, would make it possible 
for the board to formulate a policy with the hope of carrying 
it out without the obstruction of unfriendly district trus- 
tees; for in the event that any trustee should fail to carry 
out the policy of the board, he could be summarily removed, 
the county board of education being responsible to the peo- 
ple for any abuse of its authority. 

This plan also has the unqualified approval 
The Law and endorsement of the United States Bu- 

Approved. reau of Education, the Southern Educa- 

tional Association, and the Conference for 
Education in the South. 

18 



The second chief constructive feature of 
Consolidation the new law is the provision it makes for 
and Trans- better teachers and better schools, and this 

portation. means the consolidation of schools and the 

transportation of pupils. The tendency of 
district trustees to multiply the number of schools is a mat- 
ter of common observation, and our former machinery en- 
couraged this process. It came to pass that the desire of the 
neighborhood to have a school of its own outweighed all 
other consideration, and inasmuch as the law favored it, the 
county superintendent and the county board offered little, if 
any objection, and there was constantly being born a strug- 
gling school with three new representatives of the people, 
and a new shoe-box type of schoolhouse, insanitary and ill- 
equipped. 

We find ourselves today, therefore, with 
Some Sources three or four times as many schools as we 
of Waste. have any need for, and a corresponding 

surplus of school officials. We are employ- 
ing from one-fourth to one-third more teachers than there 
is necessity for and are maintaining a character of rural 
education much below what would be possible if the schools 
of the county were reorganized on a rational basis. There is 
but one reniedy for short terms, cheap teachers, poor build- 
ings, poor equipment, and lack of interest on the part of the 
community, namely, consolidated schools arranged with ref- 
erence to convenience and accessibility. Under the new law 
the unwise multiplication of new school districts will be 
stopped, the already too numerous school districts will be 
consolidated, education adapted to rural needs will be pro- 
vided, high school advantages of the kind needed in the 
country will be added, and good teachers with expert super- 
vision will be attracted to them. This could never come to 
pass under the old system, and is one of the chief arguments 

in favor of the new law. 

19 



It may be objected that the condition of 
Some the roads in many sections of the State is 

Objections not favorable to consolidation, and while 

Answered. there may be some force in such a claim, 

the classes of roads over which children 
would have to be transported would certainly be no worse 
than those over which they are now compelled to trudge; 
and any health-officer will testify that the danger under the 
latter plan, resulting from wet feet and the like, is much 
greater than any inconvenience or risk that would arise 
from transportation over bad roads. The fact is that trans- 
portation would aid materially in the building of better 
roads, and this in turn would make rural life more attract- 
ive, more profitable, and much more livable. 

Other minor duties are assigned the coun- 
Minor Powers, ty board of education, but these are in the 

interest of a more satisfactory operation 
of the powers already conferred, in reality providing only a 
little better machinery. 

In the matter of remuneration of the coun- 
Remuneration ty board members, under the old law each 
of Members. received $2.00 per day for a total of not 

more than ten days in any year. Under the 
new law the board members are to receive their actual trav- 
eling and hotel expenses incurred in attending the meetings 
of the board for a maximum of twelve sessions in any one 
year. This is essentially more nearly equitable than the old 
law which gave a fixed per diem to each and every member, 
though one might reside in the town where the board meet- 
ing was to be held and another might reside in the most re- 
mote part of the county. This was manifestly a discrimina- 
tion, inasmuch as the expenses of the resident member were 
negligible, while the expenses of the distant member were 
considerable. 

20 



The county unit of school organization and 
The County administration prevails in twenty states. 

Unit. The plan of full county control was adopted 

in Maryland in 1865 and in Louisiana in 
1870, and experience in these and all the other states organ- 
ized on this basis abundantly justifies the wisdom of the 
strong county type of organization and administration of 
schools. 

It is the concensus of opinion among stu- 
Present dents of educational administration that 

Tendencies. where the county is the unit of local civil 

government, it should be the unit of school 
government, and the general trend and tendency is unmis- 
takably in that direction. This is evidenced by the fact that 
Wisconsin and Ohio have very recently abandoned a district 
and township system, respectively, for the county system, 
and the further fact that in ten states on the district basis, 
definite steps are being taken to change to the county sys- 
tem plan by legislative enac Lment. 

EXPERT ADVICE 

Commissioner The wisdom of this evolutionary tendency 
of Education. from the smaller to the larger unit of con- 
trol is fully borne out by those who 
through experience and observation, are prepared to speak 
authoritatively on this question. The United States Com- 
missioner of Education, Hon. P. P. C' ixton, a Southerner, 
and for a number of years connected v/ith the schools off 
North Carolina and Tennessee, where ^ he county unit plan 
is in successful operation, suggests th(^, following essentials 
of the county unit basis of organization for the most satis- 
factory administration of rural schools, basing the same 
upon studies of the various regulations in the states now 
organized on that basis. 

21 



"1. The county the unit of taxation and administration of schools 
(except that, in administration, independent city districts employing a 
superintendent would not be included). 

2. The county school tax levied on all taxable property in the county, 
covered into the county treasury, and divided between the independent 
city districts and the rest of the county on a basis of school population. 

3. The county school funds, including those raised by taxation and 
those received from the State, expended in such a way as would as 
nearly as possible insure equal educational opportunities in all parts 
of the county regardless of the amount raised in any particular part. 
(Any subdistrict should be permitted to raise by taxation or other- 
wise, additional funds to supplement the county funds, provided the 
subdistrict desired a better school plant, additional equipment, or a 
more efficient teaching force than could be provided from the county 
funds.) 

4. A county board of education, in which is vested the administra- 
tion of the public schools of the county (except those in independent 
city districts), composed of from five to nine persons, elected or ap- 
pointed from the county at large; the board to be non-partisan; the 
term of office to be at least five years, and the terms arranged so that 
not more than one-fifth would expire in any one year. 

5. A county superintendent of schools, — a professional educator, se- 
lected by the county board of education from within or without the 
county or State, for a long term (at least two years), who shall serve 
as the secretary and executive officer of the county board, and as such 
be the recognized head of the public schools in the county (except 
those in independent city districts). 

6. District trustees in each subdistrict of the county, one or more 
persons, elected by the voters of the district or selected by the county 
board, to be custodians of the school property and to serve in an ad- 
visory capacity to the county board. The expenditures of local funds 
raised by the subdistrict would rest with the trustees subject to the 
approval of the county board. 

7. The powers and duties of the county board of education: 

(a) To select a county superintendent, who would be its officer in 
the performance of all of its other functions, and to appoint assistants 
as required. 

(b) To have general control and management of the schools of the 
county. 

(c) To submit estimates to the regular county taxing authority of 
the amount of money needed to support the schools. 

(d) To regulate the boundaries of the school subdistricts of the 
county, making from time to time such alterations as in its judgment 
would serve the best interests of the county system, 

(e) To locate and erect school buildings. 

(f ) To supply the necessary equipment. 

22 



(g) To fix the course of study and select textbooks (using the State 
course and State adopted textbooks in the states where action has been 
taken). 

(h) To enforce the compulsory education laws. 

(i) To employ teachers, fix their salaries and the salaries of other- 
employees." 

California. One of the foremost experts on rural 

school administration in this country, Dr. 
Ellwood P. Cubberly, Professor of Education in Leland 
Stanford University, California, lends his endorsement to 
the plan after which the Alabama law was fashioned, in the 
following language : 

"The county system of school organization is merely an attempt to 
apply to our educational affairs the same commonsense principles of 
business administration which have been put into practice, in whole or 
in part, in other departments of our governmental service, and wMchi 
have been found to give such excellent results everywhere in the busi- 
ness world. Under the system as best developed, the people elect a 
county board of education of five, who are analogous to a city board of 
education for a city. This board then selects and appoints a county 
superintendent of schools, and such deputy supervisors as are needed; 
determines the educational policy for the county, and sets financial lim- 
itations; manages the schools of the county, outside of cities having a 
city superintendent, as a unit and after much the same method of or- 
ganization and management as has been found so effective in city and 
school organization; alters, consolidates, or abolishes the school d'as- 
tricts, as the best interests of education require; oversees the work ^ 
its executive officers; determines the county school tax; appropriat>^ 
all funds; employs teachers, fixes and pays them their salaries; prcv- 
vides equal educational advantages and length of term for all schools 
in the county, and free high school advantages for' all children; acts; 
as a board of control for any county high school, teachers' training' 
school, or parental school which may be established; looks after the^ 
building and repair of all school buildings, and the purchase of all 
books and school supplies; and, in general, manages the scat- 
tered schools of the county as though they were a compact city school 
system. Under such a system of school organization, educational 
progress can be made in a year which it would take a decade or more 
to obtain under the district system." 

South Dakota. State Superintendent Lugg of South Da- 
kato says: "The county unit plan would 

23 



simplify school administration and would tend to prevent a 
few individuals in a given locality from depriving the chil- 
dren of that locality of the privileges of proper schooling. 
It would tend to professionalize the occupation of teaching. 
It would, if properly adjusted, make the county superinten- 
dent an educator instead of compelling him to be a politi- 
cian. It would make the provision of high school facilities 
more uniform for all the people of the county, besides ren- 
dering maintenance of the schools more economical.'' 

Hon. David Snedden, Commissioner of Ed- 
Massachusetts, ucation for Massachusetts, and a national 

authority on school administration, uses 
these words: "The rural country schools should be organ- 
ized for school purposes almost identically like the cities." 
^ , , has this to say: *'The plan has been in 

Maryland. g^^^^ Superintendent Stevens of Maryland 

vogue in Maryland since 1865." 

We are not left in doubt as to the proper 
Southern Con- administration of schools in the Southern 
ference for States. The Southern Educational Asso- 

Education and ciation, the Conference for Education in 
Industry. the South, and the Southern Educational 

Council, composed of the most distin- 
guished educators and business men, after an exhaustive 
study of the problem, reported at the Louisville meeting in 
1914, announcing a general policy for the administration and 
finance of a State school system. Parts of this report perti- 
nent to the issue now under discussion, are as follows : 

"The administration of the county school system should be vested in 
a county board of education consisting of not less than three nor more 
than nine members elected by the people, for terms of six years, these 
terms to be so arranged that not more than two expire in any one year. 

The county superintendent should be elected by the county board 
and should serve as its executive officer. His salary should be fixed by 
this board. He should have a corps of assistants commensurate with 

24 



the school population of the county. These assistants should be nomi- 
nated by the superintendent and confirmed by the county board. In 
the typical county the corps should include — 

(a) A county supervisory teacher for the elementary schools. 

(b) A county supervisor of negro schools. 

(c) A county director of elementary agricultural education. 

(d) A county director of girls' home arts. 

Each school district should have from one to three trustees appoint- 
ed by the county board of education to have charge of the school prop- 
erty and to serve in an advisory capacity to the county superintendent 
and county board of education. 

The school district should be in some instances a municipality which 
may or may not be independent of the county school authorities. 

The rural schools deserve special interest. The State and county 
educational authorities should put forth an effort to make them effi- 
cient. The following standards are suggested: 

(a) Each rural school should own at least ten acres of land. 

(b) The schooihouse should be put to the maximum use as the cen- 
ter of the community's life. 

(c) The school should own an adequate home for its principal. 

(d) The principal should be trained in agriculture. 

(e) Each school should have at least one teacher who has had proper 
training in domestic science and household economics." 

That the law in Alabama conforms almost literally to the 
principles enunciated above, will be manifest to any careful 
reader. 

EXPERT TESTIMONY 

Louisiana. The question naturally arises as to whether 

or not such a law will operate satisfactorily 
in Alabama, and fortunately we have a concrete illustration 
of precisely what we may expect from results in Louisiana, 
where after many years of county organization embodying 
substantially the Alabama plan, the people are abundantly 
satisfied and extraordinary progress is being made. This 
explains the fact that in educational efficiency, Louisiana 
ranks thirty-ninth among the states of the Union, while 
Alabama's rank is forty-eighth. The State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, Hon. T. H. Harris, is outspoken in fa- 

25 



vor of the system, and he cites its strong features as fol- 
lows: 

1. A small boai?d for the management of all the schools of the 
county. 

2. The board elects the county superintendent which removes the 
office from politics and insures the election of a competent man. 

3. Unwise local influences are removed and questions settled upon 
merit and not at the wire-pulling of men of local influence. 

4. Teachers are selected upon their merit; not because they are re- 
lated to the district trustees or board members. 

5. The consolidation of country schools is promoted. The county 
board abandons schools and establishes new ones as the needs of the 
children dictate. There are no local board members to consent and no 
jobs to lose. 

6. Supervision is made possible. The superintendent cannot super- 
vise efficiently the work of the schools if he is required to keep several 
hundred local board members satisfied. 

7. It injects business methods into the management of schools. 
With no axes to grind, no favors to reward, a small board in charge 
of the schools of the county does its best to provide the best possible 
schools for all the children. 

Mobile County. If a more specific instance of the probable 
effect of the new law in Alabama is de- 
manded, the case of Mobile county is pertinent. As has 
already been said, the essentials of this law in modified form 
have been applied there for many years. The average length 
of term for white schools in the cities of Alabama is 174 
days, and for rural districts, 118 days. The average length 
of term for the white schools of the State is 133 days. In 
the case of Mobile county, we find that the length of term 
for the white city schools is 174 days, and for rural schools, 
169 days, or a difference of only five days, the average for all 
white schools being 172 days. 

It will appear, therefore, that the extremes 
Equality of for Mobile county, namely, the length of 

Opportunity. term for the white city schools, and the 
length of term for white rural schools, dif- 
fer by only five days. The terms, therefore, are approximate- 

26 



ly equal for all schools in the county, whether located in the 
country or in the city. No such conditions exist anywhere 
else in the State, but on the other hand we find everywhere 
a great discrepancy. 

There is no other way to explain the appar- 
The Explan- ent equality, of educational opportunity in 
ation. the city and rural districts of Mobile coun- 

ty except that they are controlled by one 
and the same board ; and the further fact that the average 
term of the white schools is 37 days longer than the average 
term for the State, is evidence of the efficacy of the Mobile 
county plan. Not only is the term longer in Mobile county 
than elsewhere, but the character of the supervision is more 
consistent, more regular, and more proficient, and this state- 
ment is borne out by the fact that the county superintendent 
of education, who is also the city superintendent of schools, 
is now completing his fifteenth year of service. He has a 
corps of assistants under his direction who visit the rural 
schools with the same regularity that they visit the city 
schools, and under their guidance, every school in the county 
has been thoroughly graded. There is still another way in 
which the schools of Mobile county outrank all others in the 
State. The county board has authority to consolidate 
schools and transport pupils, and for that reason there are 
more consolidated schools there than in all the otlier coun- 
ties of the State combined, and correspondingly fewer one- 
room schools. 

The Alabama law for the county organiza- 
The Logical tion and administration of schools is 

Conclusion. progressive in spirit, democratic in na- 

ture, large in its aim, and boundless in 
the possibilities of good to be derived by the children 
of the State from its operation. It is in keeping with 
the best educational thought of the times, follows the 

27 



marked tendency of the United States to increase the size 
of the administrative units and make the educational ad- 
ministrative units co-terminous with the county, which is 
the unit for the administration of the other departments of 
government. In other words, a strong, balanced county or- 
ganization now takes the place of a loosely constructed, 
weak and inefficient system. 

The main benefits to be derived from the 
Recapitulation, operation of this law may be recapitulated 

as follows : 

1. Effective administration of the schools of the county 
by a capable board of five members elected at large from 
the county, having large powers and responsible to all the 
people of the county ; a board that will have no fear in do- 
ing its full duty and whose treatment of all subdivisions of 
the county will be equitable. 

2. Supervision of the schools of the county by a profes- 
sionally trained county superintendent elected by and re- 
sponsible to the county board for his actions. 

3. Consolidation of small rural schools into graded cen- 
tral schools, with the attendant advantages of classified 
work, better schoolhouses and equipment, better teachers, 
social-center activities, and socializing influences upon pa- 
rents and children. 

4. Transportation of pupils, where necessary, making it 
possible for children in remote places to attend school with- 
out physical discomfort or danger. 

The illustrations and arguments might be 
Conclusion. longer drawn out, but it is difficult to see 

how any fairminded man who will take the 
pains to study the question at all, could doubt the wisdom 
of that legislation which means the effective reorganization 
of our county school system. 



28 



COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 

I.AW 



No. 220.) (S. 129— Lee. 

AN ACT 

To Provide for a County Board of Education, to Prescribe the Method 
of Election of the Members Thereof, to Define the Powers and Du- 
ties of the Board, and to Require the Boards of Education in Incor- 
porated Cities and Towns to Make an Enumeration of Children of 
School Age. 

Be it enacted by the Legislature of Alabama: 

1. That from and after the third Saturday in November, 1916, the 
public schools of each of the several counties of the State, except those 
in incorporated cities and towns, shall be under the immediate direc- 
tion and control of a county board of education consisting of five 
members. The county board of education of each county shall be 
elected by the qualified electors of the county. All members of the 
county board of education of any county shall be persons of good 
moral character with at least a fair elementary education, of good 
standing in their respective communities, and known for their honesty, 
business ability, public spirit and interest in the good of public educa- 
tion. 

2. That on the first Saturday in November, 1916, the qualified elec- 
tors of the county shall elect five members of the county board of edu- 
cation; provided, that the five persons receiving the highest number of 
votes from the county at large shall be declared the members of the 
county board of education; and provided, that the two members of the 
board so elected receiving the highest number of votes shall hold office 
for a term of six years ; that the two members receiving the next high- 
est number of votes shall hold office for a term of fou^r years; and 
that the member so elected receiving the lowest number of votes shall 
hold office for a term of two years; provided further, that at the gen- 
eral election of State and county officers in November, 1918, and bien- 
nially thereafter, a member or members shall be elected for terms of 
six years to succeed those whose term or terms of office shall expire at 
that time; provided that any member of the board of education shall 
hold office until a successor has been elected and qualified. 

3. That the county board of education of each of the several coun- 
ties, elected as herein provided, shall meet in the office of the county 

29 



superintendent of education of the county within ten days after the 
election of such board or any member thereof, qualify and organize by 
electing one of its members president. The president shall be entitled 
to vote on all questions. The county superintendent of education shall 
be the secretary and executive officer of the board and shall attend all 
meetings of the same, but he shall not have the right of a vote in the 
board. 

4. That the county boards of education shall have entire control of 
the public schools, unless otherwise provided by law, within their re- 
spective counties. They shall make rules and regulations for the gov- 
ernment of the schools, see that the teachers perform their duties, and 
exercise such powers consistent with the law as in their judgment will 
best subserve the cause of education. The board shall have the right 
to acquire, purchase, by the institution of condemnation proceedings 
if necessary, lease, receive, hold, transmit, and convey the title to real 
and personal property for school purposes, except where otherwise 
provided, by and in the name of the county board of education, to sue 
and contract, all contracts to be made after resolutions adopted by the 
board and spread on its minutes and signed by its president. All 
process shall be executed by service on the executive officer of the board. 

5. In addition to the duties hereinbefore prescribed, the county 
boards of education shall perform the following duties: 

(1) Select a county superintendent of education, prescribe his duties 
in addition to those required by law, and the amount of his salary; pro- 
vided, that no member of a county board of education shall be eligible 
for election as county superintendent of education during the term for 
which he was elected as a member of the board of education. 

(2) Elect a county treasurer of public school funds. 

(3) Elect to hold office until the next regular election as provided 
under this act, the successor to any member of the county board of 
education whose place may have become vacant by death, resignation, 
or other cause; provided, that in case the county board fails for a pe- 
riod of thirty days to fill said vacancy, the State superintendent of ed- 
ucation shall have authority to appoint a member to fill the same. At 
the next general election held in November, a successor shall be elected 
for the unexpired term as provided by section 2 of this act for the elec- 
tion of other members. 

(4) Select upon the nomination of the county superintendent of edu- 
cation, assistant superintendents, supervisors and such office force as 
may be necessary, and fix their salaries. 

(5) Select teachers for the several schools of the county upon nomi- 
nation of the county superintendent of education, fix their salaries, 
erect, repair, and furnish schoolhouses, fix all wages of employees, de- 
termine all incidental expenses, and have entire control of the public 
school funds of the county, except as otherwise provided by law. 

80 



(6) Fix the boundaries of school districts and locate schools with 
reference to convenience, efficiency, and economy. 

(7) Consolidate schools and provide for the transportation of pupils 
at public expense. 

(8) Upon the agreement of the boards of education of adjoining 
counties, authorize a child residing in one county to attend school in 
another county, and it shall be permitted to do so when the school in 
the other county is nearer than any school in its own county; upon 
the request of parents or guardians, a city board of education and a 
county board of education may make any just and equitable arrange- 
ment for the attendance of children of the city at the schools of the 
county, and for the attendance of the children of the county at the 
schools of the city, and they shall do so when it can be done without 
injury to the schools of either the county or the city. 

(9) Control the public school funds as provided by law. 

(10) Appoint for every school in the county discreet, competent and 
reliable person or persons of mature years, not exceeding three in 
number, residing near to the schoolhouse, and having the respect and 
confidence of the people of the community, to serve as trustee or trus- 
tees of the school, to care for the property and to look after the gen- 
eral interests of the school, and to make to the county board of educa- 
tion, through the county superintendent of education, from time to 
time, reports of the progress and needs of the schools, and of the will 
and sentiment of the people in regard to the school; but such person 
or persons shall not be paid for such service out of the public school 
funds. 

(11) Enforce compulsory attendance as required by law. 

(12) Act as promptly as possible on cases of appeal by pupils sus- 
pended by teachers. 

(13) Dismiss county superintendents, assistant county superinten- 
dents, and teachers for incompetency, improper or immoral conduct, 
or inattention to duty, or whenever in their opinion the best interests 
of the schools may require. 

(14) Select resident persons to enumerate the scholastic population 
of all children between the ages of seven and twenty-one years as pro- 
vided by law, and to require that in enumerating the scholastic popu- 
lation, the name of the child, the name of the parent or guardian, the 
age of the child, the school to which it belongs and the distance to the 
nearest school, be recorded, and also the fact as to whether the child 
is able to read and write. White children and negro children shall be 
reported in separate lists, and in any town or city maintaining a pub- 
lic school system, the board of education of that incorporated city or 
town, is hereby empowered and required to enumerate the scholastic 
population of that city or town, as provided by law; and in addition 

31 



LIBHAHY Uh UUNUHt&b 



to giving the name of the child, and the name of [j \jc\ fcl T I OiL 

dians, and stating whether the child can read anu v»i.xuv^, ^nc ncmic « 
the street and number of the house in which it resides shall be given. I 

6. The members of the county board of education shall receive fromi 
the public school funds of the county their actual traveling and hotel! 
expenses incurred in attending meetings of the board; provided that! 
such expenditures shall be allowed for not more than twelve meetings! 
in any one year. The members of the county board shall be paid in like 
manner as provided for the compensation paid to teachers; provided, 
that they shall not be required to hold State teachers' certificates. 
County superintendents shall be paid a minimum salary of $1,000 al 
year, and after September 30, 1915, shall engage in no other form of | 
remunerative work. 

7. All laws or parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this] 
act, except such as make provision for local taxation for school pur- 
poses, are hereby repealed, and in case any part of this law is declared i 
unconstitutional, the parts not so declared unconstitutional shall re- 
main in full force and effect as the law of the State. 



82 



mSl ^^ CONGRESS 



021 274 732 4 



